Veteran comedian Joey de Leon said that the public has the right to choose or decline a vaccine but it’s better to receive one than none at all.
The Eat Bulaga host said this in an Instagram post where he praised the Department of Health (DOH) spokesperson Dr. Rosario Vergeire for her explanation on the “equal footing” of vaccine brands once they received the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“Tulad ng ‘choosy fruit’ na BANANA sa picture, WAG nyong gawin sa BAKUNA! Just remember basta may Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, kahit anong brand pa yan, effective and safe yan. Wika nga ni Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire, ‘equal footing’ o pare-parehong ligtas at may talab na mga yan!” he said.
“Karapatan nyo rin ang mamili at humindi ngunit higit na buti ang makukuha kaysa wala! Tandaan: Basta aprubado ng FDA, WAG MATAKOT, MAKIBAKUNA!” he added.
In a separate post, Joey noted how some people care more about the brand names, but he believes that as long as it has FDA’s approval then there’s nothing to fear.
“Yung iba ang tingin sa mga brands ng bakuna ay parang Chanel, Louis Vuitton, etc. TANDAAN: Ang importante basta inaprubahan ng Food & Drug Administration (FDA), equal footing o pare-pareho na mga yan, effective at safe! Ang pinakamaayos magpaliwanag tungkol dyan para sa akin ay si Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire. Basta may FDA approval na, WAG MATAKOT, MAKIBAKUNA!”
Joey is not only the celeb who weighed in on the issue of vaccines.
Earlier, fellow comedian Vice Ganda commented on vaccines after Presidential Spokesperson Atty. Harry Roque said that Filipinos can’t afford to be picky with COVID-19 vaccines they will receive for free from the government since many others want to get inoculated against the virus.
“Totoo po, meron tayong lahat na karapatan para sa mabuting kalusugan pero hindi naman po pwede na pihikan dahil napakaraming Pilipino na dapat turukan,” Roque said.
“Wala pong pilian, wala kasing pilitan. Pero magsa-sign ka ng waiver na hindi ka nagpaturok at kapag ikaw ay may prayoridad, siyempre mawawala ang prayoridad mo, sasama ka sa the rest ng taumbayan na naghihintay ng bakuna,” he added.
Vice slammed the statement in a tweet: “Sa sabong panlaba nga choosy tayo e sa bakuha pa kaya. Ano to basta may maisaksak lang?!”
Vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez assured in a statement on Friday that only vaccines endorsed by the vaccine expert panel will be purchased and only those issued an EUA (emergency use authorization) by the FDA will be administered.
The Philippines plans to vaccinate 50 to 70 million Filipinos against COVID-19 in 2021.
As The STAR reported on Saturday, the government is eyeing seven vaccine brands to be used for Filipinos: Novavax in conjunction with Serum Institute of India; AstraZeneca of United Kingdom; Pfizer-BioNTech of the United States-Germany; Janssen of US-Belgium, Moderna of US, Sinovac of China and Sputnik V of Russia’s Gamaleya.
